


Card

by NerdsbianHokie



Series: Ditto [3]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Gen, alex is a good mom, references to past abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 17:28:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30059022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdsbianHokie/pseuds/NerdsbianHokie
Summary: An assignment at school gets Ditto in trouble
Series: Ditto [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2120877
Comments: 15
Kudos: 56





	Card

**Author's Note:**

> This idea hit me the other night, then I spent all of Sunday writing this and I hope y'all enjoy it
> 
> This does deal with the emotional impact of an abusive parent being in jail

The hallways were empty as Alex walked, but she could see classes through the window on each door. She passed Ditto’s classroom. The man in front of the class wasn’t his teacher. Alex frowned for a moment, then smiled when she noticed the paintings hanging on the wall next to the door.

Ditto had asked Kara to help with that ‘paint your favorite place’ assignment. She had taken him to Midvale for a weekend so he could paint the beach through the mudroom window. Alex couldn’t wait until it was hanging in her office instead of at his school.

She kept going, leaving his classroom and art behind. Recent renovations on the school meant the principal’s office was further in, instead of by the entrance like it usually was.

Ditto was sitting on a bench outside the door, his backpack next to him. He looked up as she got closer, then dropped his head instantly.

Alex stopped in front of him, knelt down so she could look up at him. It took a few moments before he met her eyes.

“Do you think you did anything wrong?” she asked.

It took a few moments, but he shook his head.

“Okay,” she said. She started to say more but was interrupted.

“Ms. Danvers?”

The principal. Ms. Hall gestured through the door to her office.

Alex stood and rested a hand on Ditto’s shoulder for a moment before following the principal.

The office was clearly supposed to be a classroom. Half of the room was empty, spare seats stacked against the walls. A chalkboard hung on one wall, empty, but clearly once used as the chalk residue shaded the black.

Ditto’s teacher, Mrs. Stein, was waiting by the desk, having been paged when Alex signed in as a visitor. Ms. Hall took her seat at the desk, then Mrs. Stein, then Alex.

“Ms. Danvers, Ditto has been a joy to have in class,” Mrs. Stein started. “He always listens and gets along with the other students. I haven’t had any problems with him all year.”

“So, what happened?” Alex asked.

Mrs. Stein grimaced. “Because the school year ends before father’s day…”

Alex’s stomach turned.

“...the class had an assignment to make a card for their father. The exact same assignment as on mother’s day. They were to write a poem inside the card and use imagery from the poem to decorate the front.”

Alex nodded. She kept the card he had made for her in the front of the primary binder she was using for her thesis notes. She couldn’t imagine Ditto making anything like that for Rick. He hadn’t even told her about the assignment, despite telling her almost everything about his schoolwork.

“I told the class that if they didn’t have a father, they could talk to me and I had an alternate assignment they could finish,” Mrs. Stein continued. “Ditto didn’t come talk to me. He worked on a card during the class time I gave them, then refused to turn anything in when it was due.”

Alex nodded.

“I kept him back at the beginning of recess to talk about it. He told me that his father is...incarcerated.”

Alex winced.

“I told him that a card might make his father feel much better and he refused to speak after that.”

Alex considered her words. She could already guess what had happened, but had no desire to to give them details. “I’m sure Ditto didn’t feel like he was allowed to take the alternate assignment, because he technically does have a father, but his relationship with his father is...complicated.”

“Why don’t we bring Ditto in?” Ms. Hall suggested.

-

The bottom of his sneakers squeaked against the floor as Ditto kicked his legs back and forth. He stared at the opposite wall, plastered with posters about bullying and safety tips.

His mom hadn’t seemed mad when she had shown up, but when she found out he hadn’t done his work? He didn’t think she would get really mad, but he always got his work done. Even when he lost focus in class, he was able to finish his homework.

A class of little kids walked past him in a train, each of them holding onto the rope led by their teacher as they walked to the busses. He kept his head low. Miss. Milne had been his second grade teacher and he didn’t want her to know he was getting in trouble.

“Ditto?”

He looked over to Ms. Hall.

“Join us, please?”

Ditto stood up, grabbed his bag, and followed her into the office.

His stomach hurt. He just wanted to disappear.

What if he was in so much trouble they wouldn’t make him go to middle school the next year? What if they made him redo fifth grade and lose all of his friends?

He didn’t look at anyone as he walked across the room and sat in the seat between his mom and Mrs. Stein.

“Ditto?” his mom asked.

She didn’t sound mad.

“Can you look at me?”

He looked up at her.

Her entire body was turned towards him, talking to him, not the teachers.

“Can you tell me what happened?”

He shrugged.

The bell rang, but his mother didn’t blink.

“Please, Dit?”

“I didn’t want to make Dad a card, but I didn’t want to…” He shrugged.

“Want to explain why?” his mom softly asked.

He nodded. If he had told Mrs. Stein he hated his dad, she would have asked why and he didn’t want to tell anyone why if he didn’t have to.

His mom looked past him.

“Can he do the alternate assignment for partial credit?”

“Of course. Ditto?”

He turned to look at Mrs. Stein.

“Just choose another person you want to give a card to,” she told him. “And make it for them.”

Ditto nodded.

“Can you tell me what you spent the class time doing?” Mrs. Stein asked.

His stomach really hurt.

“I just doodled,” he said.

She nodded.

Ditto looked down at his lap.

“I think we’re all good,” Ms. Hall said. “Ditto?”

He looked up at her.

“You can always talk to your teacher if there’s something with an assignment you need help with.”

He nodded.

“Alright. Thank you for coming down to talk with us, Ms. Danvers.”

“Thank you for understanding and giving Ditto another chance at the assignment.”

His mother stood, put a hand on his shoulder and guided him out of the room. She didn’t speak as they walked through the halls, other students running around them. When they reached the car, she turned around in the driver’s seat to look at him.

“We’ll talk a little more when we get home,” she said. “But, I’m not mad at you, Dit, I promise.”

He nodded.

She started the car and began to drive.

“Who do you think you might make a card for?” she asked.

“Aunt Kara,” he said.

“She’ll love that.”

He nodded. Aunt Kara was definitely more important than his dad.

“What sort of things do you think you could include in the poem?”

“Umm, stars.” Sometimes, when his mom was really tired from her school stuff and work, Aunt Kara would take him outside to look at the stars. She said his mom did the same thing for her when they were little. “Painting.” She had painted his bedroom walls, and often took him places to paint.

They spent the rest of the drive home talking about what he could do with the card.

“When we get inside,” his mom said as they got home, “why don’t you go put your stuff in your room then meet me in the kitchen?”

“Okay.”

Donnie met them at the front door, entire body wiggling as her tail wagged. She followed Ditto to his room, jumping up onto his bed.

Ditto put his bag on the floor, then picked it back up.

“You’re lucky you don’t know your dad,” he told Donnie as he put the bag on his bed and pulled a folder out. “Dads suck.”

He took a deep breath.

“We gotta go back downstairs now.”

Donnie stayed with him as he went down to the kitchen. He took the folder with him.

His mom had a sandwich and juice box ready for him on the island and was eating her own. She nodded at the stool next to her. He put the folder down as he sat, then picked at the sandwich.

A few minutes passed before his mother spoke.

“You know you can always come to me for anything, right?”

“I didn’t want to talk about him,” he said. “And I didn’t want to make you talk about him.”

His mother took a deep breath. “It’s never easy, talking about him, but you can always come to me about anything. Especially your father. Okay?”

“You always get so sad when anyone talks about him.”

“Oh, Ditto.” She shifted on the chair to face him more fully. “He hurt both of us, and I don’t want you to keep hurting because you’re worried about me. I would feel better knowing you’ll talk to me about him than if you try to protect me.”

He looked down as his eyes started to sting. He didn’t want to cry. He was tired of crying because of his stupid dad.

“I lied to Mrs. Stein,” he said, reaching for the folder.

“About what?”

He opened the folder and grabbed a card stuffed in the back. “I wasn’t just doodling on the card.”

He handed her the card. He had doodled on the outside, just random things, but he had written something on the inside.

_Dad_

_Fuck you_

_Ditto_

“I knew I’d get in more trouble if I turned in what I wanted to write.”

His mother was silent for a few moments. Ditto started to pull the crust off his sandwich, just to try and stop his hands from feeling like they were going to vibrate off his arms.

“You aren’t old enough to be using this word,” his mother finally said, “but it’s alright that you feel like this about him.”

“You still aren’t mad?”

She shook her head.

The tears started to fall.

She stood and pulled him into a hug. Ditto pressed into her.

“I love you,” she whispered. 

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lot of feels about Ditto and as I wrote this I realized the boy has adhd and anxiety, but he has so much support
> 
> thank you to 4beit and Meghan for reading through it and answering my questions


End file.
